KANSAS, CITY, MO. ? Kansas University athletic director Lew Perkins spoke with reporters for about 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon at the Intercontinental Hotel on the Plaza.
Perkins was at the hotel to participate in the annual summer meetings of the Big 12 Conference. High on this year’s agenda was the potential conference expansion and the future KU athletics as it participates in the Big 12.
However, in light of recent reports about an alleged blackmail incident involving Perkins as well as the black eye on the university because of a ticket scandal that has led to the dismissal of several former KU employees, Perkins’ personal goings on dominated the early part of the impromptu news conference.
Thrown together at the last minute because of the presence of reporters who “tried to grab me every time I went to the bathroom,” Perkins elected to talk before the scheduled meeting time of 3 p.m.
Although he was vague in his answers, Perkins emphasized one fact.
“With some decent and logical thoughts, you could figure this whole thing out,” Perkins said. “I’m the victim. I turned everything over to the police department, and I’ve been told very clearly that I can’t discuss it.”
Although several questions regarding the matter were thrown his way, Perkins remained tight-lipped, saying, “I would love to (answer those questions) but I can’t talk about anything, feelings, emotions, nothing. Believe me, I’d love to get a lot of things off my chest.”
From there the topic turned to expansion and Perkins outlined his thoughts on what might happen throughout the course of the Big 12 meetings in Kansas City.
Chief among those thoughts were:
• He believes remaining in the Big 12, as it’s shaped, is what would be best for Kansas.
• KU would listen to anyone and everyone who came calling and would continue to reach out to other conferences. As Perkins put it, “I want to do what’s right for this university.”
• As expected, a huge part of the conference expansion would be revenue. Perkins labled three financial elements that could impact KU’s decision: 1. A school would have to earn its way into a new conference in terms of revenue; 2. A school also should expect to have to pony up some cash in order to get into a revenue sharing deal with any conference; and 3. A school should expect there to be some sort of penalty for leaving an existing conference, just as there was for the three schools who left the Big East when Perkins was the AD at Connecticut prior to coming to Kansas.
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